Is This Man The Weinstein Of Fashion?

As the former boss of Elite Models, Gérald Marie was one of the most powerful men in fashion. Now, a string of former models have come forward alleging he sexually abused them. Lucy Osborne reports on the industry’s #MeToo moment

-  Lucy Osborne

In the spring of 1980, Wendy Walsh and her mother flew to Paris from their home in Toronto, Canada. Walsh was 17, a straight-A student who excelled at maths. She was also an aspiring model whose blonde-haired, blue-eyed, girl-next-door looks had got her noticed and invited to France by a leading modelling agency, Paris Planning.

At the agency’s offices, Walsh and her mum, Ellen, were introduced to the charismatic 30-year-old boss, Gérald Marie. “I remember distinctly him fawning over my mother … He reached over and was stroking her hand, and something in my 17-year-old stomach was like, this is weird.” Later, in their hotel room, Walsh remembers her mother saying: “Oh, that man is lovely, he’s going to take care of you.”

Two months later, in June 1980, Walsh moved to Paris. “I was young, I was naive, and I had stars in my eyes,” she says now. “I was not scared one little bit, because I trusted all the adults who were going to take care of me and make me a famous model.”

Walsh, who is now 58, is one of eight women who allege they were sexually assaulted by Marie between 1980 and 1998, as uncovered in an investigation by The Guardian in October 2020. In November, seven more women came forward.